Buyout buzz: Novartis has been kicking the tires at AAA as FDA reviews Lutathera — report

After working through some snafus on its applications for its experimental cancer drug Lutathera, Bloomberg is reporting that Novartis has been kicking the tires at France’s Advanced Accelerator applications with an interest in making a bid for the company.

No one is saying that Novartis has bid for the company, and Bloomberg’s piece notes that others may step in — the kind of story that never hurts your stock price $AAAP.

Vasant Narasimhan, Novartis

The company’s stock surged 10% on the buyout buzz, boosting a market cap that closed Wednesday at $2.7 billion.

That kind of valuation is well within the range of Novartis, which has selected $2 billion to $5 billion bolt-ons as its sweet spot under CEO Joe Jimenez. This new deal — if this is accurate — would presumably have to pass muster with development chief Vas Narasimhan, now transitioning to the helm in early 2018.

Last fall AAA noted that the FDA had trouble analyzing data from its study of Lutathera for gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors and a CRL followed in December. The therapy targets tumors with radiolabeled somatostatin analogue peptides. The FDA accepted the resubmitted application at the end of August, setting a PDUFA date of January 26, 2018.

Sign in to Endpoints News

Request a magic link

Enter your email below to get a Magic link which lets you sign in quickly without using a password.Please note the Magic link is one-time use only and valid for only 24 hours.
Email:

← Go back

Set a new password

We will send you a link, with which you will be able to set a new password.Please note this link is for one-time use only and valid for only 24 hours.
Email:

← Go back

We produce two daily email newsletters designed to give you a complete picture of what's important in biopharma. It's free to subscribe and never any spam. Join 33,800+ biopharma executives who read Endpoints News every day.